Moses’ Preparation Of The March To The Holy Land: A Dialogue With Rolf P. Knierim On Numbers 1:1–10:10

Abstract

In his part of the commentary on Numbers, which he published together with George W. Coats, Rolf P. Knierim gave a brilliant analysis of form, setting, and genre of Num 1:1-10:36 under the heading "Israel's migratory campaign to the Holy land." As a matter of fact, Num 1:1-10:10 is in need of an approach which would help to get it away from the fame to be a rather unbalanced part of the book of Numbers which probably is one of the more difficult parts of the Pentateuch to be explained in a critical and theological discussion. Although Knierim shows a convincing organizational structure of the last edition of Numbers 3-4, a literary critical analysis of Numbers 3-4 is able to reduce the complex tradition to a convincingly structured groundwork too. It can explain the development of the text up to the present form. Keywords: Holy land; Num 1:1-10:10; Pentateuch; Rolf P. Knierim